From the perspective of brands, this may be a big deal. $185k is a drop in the bucket, and large organizations with marketing budgets held in different divisions often have very different infrastructure (sometimes because those divisions are separate companies that have been acquired, have a separate P&L, etc). New product launches have to deal with domain availability and possible trademark squatters. Some brands have different websites for different segments of their audience. Some brands launch websites just to support a specific marketing effort, such as cause marketing or event support.

This is absolutely a head-scratcher for small orgs, but is pretty convenient (a convenience easily worth $185k) for the big brands. I think their example of .apple is a silly one. A better example might be P&G, J&J, Pfizer, The Pepsi Company, etc.